


Reach

by LadyoftheShield



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-03
Updated: 2015-02-03
Packaged: 2018-03-10 06:37:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3280403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyoftheShield/pseuds/LadyoftheShield
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marco and Mertil bond after Gafinilan's death. Oneshot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reach

I went back two weeks after the funeral. I had to go after school, since I needed my backpack to carry some things. While Mertil’s house was only a mile from school, the buses didn’t pass close to it. The mile long walk passed quickly. Everything had been going wrong lately, and I hadn’t had the time to check on Mertil. But I had not forgotten. Now was the first free afternoon since Gafinilan’s death, and I was making good on my promise.

  
Mertil was surprised to see me, but let me into the biome anyway. I moved carefully, mindful not to knock anything over with the backpack hanging on my shoulders. After years of interacting with our resident alien boy, I had a fairly good grasp on Andalite body language, and it was clear to me that Mertil was sad. It was in the arc of his shoulders, the curve of his tail and the faint clacking noise his hooves made on the cement.

  
<Is everything well, Marco?> he asked. His rear hoof pawed at the ground, a motion I had seen Ax make many times, and both his stalk eyes were trained on me.

  
"Yeah, fine," I said as I looked around the garden. On the path, a clot of dead leaves and dirt crunched under my bare feet. Broken pots lay scattered along the ground like and the air stank of dead plants and dirt. "Just wanted to come by and see how you were holding up," I said. Mertil’s bad luck could drown a small army, even without Gafinilan’s death, and while I knew he was doing fine, I knew what if was like to lose someone you loved dearly. That, coupled with Mertil’s exile, would undoubtedly be hard on him.

Mertil tilted his head to the side, <Gafinilan made it his goal to care for me, but I am not incapable. I do not need a… a babysitter.>

  
"Never said you did," I returned, unslinging my backpack. "I just thought you might like some company. Bet it gets lonely out there."

For a moment, he didn’t say anything. His main eyes turned to look at me, and both his stalk eyes turned toward the sapling growing in the backyard. Where we had buried Gafinilan. <Yes,> he said after a moment, <It does.>

To kill the awkward silence, I unzipped my backpack. “Brought you some things,” I said, dumping a stack of books onto the ground. “You can read English, right?”

<I can,> Mertil confirmed, picking up the book on the top. Most of them were books I had no use for- required books on our reading list from school, gifts from distance relatives, things like that. Lucky for me, they were all books I could claim were great literature and thus worthy a read. In my experience, “great literature” was decidedly lacking in characters with common sense or any characterization beyond that of a wooden plank. If Mertil liked it, great. If not, we could commiserate together. 

He turned the book over in his hands, and shifted his stance. His hoof knocked against the wooden box on the floor. Mertil looked down with his stalk, keeping his attention on the books. <What is that?>

"That, my friend," I said, kneeling by the box and sweeping the books away with my hand, "Is a chess set."

<Chess?> he repeated, examining the box. <It looks like some sort of puzzle for children.>

"It’s a strategy game," I said, setting the pieces up, "Needs two players."

<Strategy?>

I looked up with agrin as I set the last piece. “Wanna go, horse-boy?”

<…yes,> he said, kneeling down and stroking the corner of the board, <I do.>

Halfway through the game, I looked at his body language again. His eyestalks thrashed absently, and his tail swung over his head. Tense. Coiled like a spring.

<Check,> he announced, moving a piece. Then he looked at me with his main eyes, keeping one stalk on the board and letting the other look behind him.

He didn’t say anything, but I knew what he meant. I sent my knight to defend the king, setting up a knight fork in the process.

Mertil didn’t say thank you. But then, he didn’t have to.


End file.
